Burlington Central cruises to first triumph

BURLINGTON -- Burlington Central put its season back on track with a bruising 35-13 win against Byron on Friday.

The Rockets earned their first win behind junior quarterback Tim Maroder, who rushed for three touchdowns and threw another to Kevin Kellish in the Big Northern Conference crossover matchup against the Tigers.

"We were well-prepared," said Maroder, who rushed for a team-high 164 yards to go along with his 49 passing yards. "It felt good to get yards individually and as a team.

"It was non-conference, but we played our hearts out. That just shows we can do it in the conference. Were getting closer and closer to our goal of being conference champs and a playoff team."

Absent for Central (1-2) in a pair of blowout losses to kick off the season were big plays. The Rockets found a way to make them on both sides of the ball against Byron.

Maroder broke a long run to set up his TD pass to Kellish with 5:01 left in the first quarter. Two runs of more than 20 yards by Brandon Westergaard helped the Rockets drive deep into Tiger territory again during the second quarter.

But defense was how Central took control of the game.

The Rockets saw a long drive that started on their own 20 end on downs at Byron's 1-yard line. But the Tigers promptly turned the ball back over to Central as Michael Kellenberger picked off Byron QB Dustin Elsbury.

The interception helped set up an 11-yard TD run by Maroder with 1:19 to go before halftime. A huge fumble recovery by the Rockets moments later enabled Tre Llanes to score from 12 yards out on an option pitch to put Central ahead 21-0 with 24 seconds left in the second quarter.

Maroder broke touchdown runs of 25 and 63 yards in the second half as Central built a 35-0 lead. Joey Lang added another pick against Elsbury as Byron's two fourth-quarter TDs proved too little, too late.

Tim Vincent knocked through all five PAT kicks despite twice being asked to boot the ball an extra five yards because of penalties.

"We've said all along we think we have a decent team," Rockets coach Aaron Wichman said. "If we could get some momentum and get some things going, guys feeding off of other guys making plays, we thought good things would happen for us and that's the way it worked."

The win was also a welcome confidence-booster for the players Wichman and his coaching staff have sold on sticking with their game plan and executing.

"We weren't happy with the way we performed the first two weeks and we were really upset with the results, so we wanted to pick up our intensity this week," Evan Billek said. "We did that in practice and it translated to the field. No doubt about it, I'm 100-percent sure well care this over to next week."

BURLINGTON CENTRAL 35, BYRON 13

Byron   0   0   0   13   --   13

Central  7  14  7    7   --   35

BC -- Kellish 12 pass from Maroder (Vincent kick), 5:01

BC -- Maroder 11 run (Vincent kick), 1:19

BC -- Llanas 12 run (Vincent kick), :24

BC -- Maroder 25 run (Vincent kick, 8:28

BC -- Maroder 68 run (Vincent kick), 7:40

BYRON --  King 61 run (Walden kick), 6:51

BYRON -- Ziel 1 run (kick failed), :12

TEAM STATS          Byron              BC

First downs                    10                  16

Comp.-att-int              5-11-2           4-5-0

Passing Yds.                  32                  49

Rushing att-yds           32-154          39-309

Total Yards                  219                358

Fumbles-lost                2-1                 1-0

Penalties-yds.             5-25              6-47.5

INDIVIDUAL STATS

RUSHING

Byron: King 9-87, Clark 9-52, Bradley 4-13, Ziel 5-12, Dach 3-8, Elsbury 2-(-18).

Burlington Central: Maroder 9-164, Westergaard 15-92, Llanas 8-36, Billek 2-6, Cardenas 2-10, McMillan 1-(-1), Mendez 2-2).

PASSING

Byron: Elsbury 5-11-2 32.

Burlington Central: Maroder 4-5-0 49.

RECEIVING

Byron: Nason 3-33, King 1-2, Clark 1-(-3).

Burlington Central: Kellish 3-44, Billek 1-5.